All I can say is they don't make them like this anymore. This is my friend's generator. It has sat locked away in a shed for decades. Finally he dug it out and asked me to take a look at it. Thank god he didn't try to start it right away. The oil had turned to sludge. I never seen anything like it in person. I seen the youtube videos where they jab it with a screwdriver and that's what I had to do. The color was way off. It was a reddish brown almost like ATF. If that wasn't bad enough it was grossly overfilled. Machine takes .63 of a quart and somehow I drained out 1.25.
I siphoned out the gas tank. The 20 year old fuel still looked clean and clear. Only clue was the smell. Stale fuel just doesn't have that strong gas smell to it. Gave it a fresh fill of premium 91 gas and PYB 10w-30. I try to turn the motor slowly. Instant compression with smooth pull. I found this impressive since I didn't get to pull the spark plug or soak the piston. My instinct said fire it up. It took 5 pulls and it fired right up. Runs great and idles smooth. The generator is working again. No smoke from the pipe and the gaskets didn't implode.
After 20 minutes of run time I gave it another oil change. The PYB came out jet black. I think 1-2 more short OCIs are in order before it can go to work. As for the major overfill. Could that have helped keep corrosion out? I suspect the climate was on its side.
That's all for now. I will tinker with it a little more and post if anything major happens to it.
I siphoned out the gas tank. The 20 year old fuel still looked clean and clear. Only clue was the smell. Stale fuel just doesn't have that strong gas smell to it. Gave it a fresh fill of premium 91 gas and PYB 10w-30. I try to turn the motor slowly. Instant compression with smooth pull. I found this impressive since I didn't get to pull the spark plug or soak the piston. My instinct said fire it up. It took 5 pulls and it fired right up. Runs great and idles smooth. The generator is working again. No smoke from the pipe and the gaskets didn't implode.
After 20 minutes of run time I gave it another oil change. The PYB came out jet black. I think 1-2 more short OCIs are in order before it can go to work. As for the major overfill. Could that have helped keep corrosion out? I suspect the climate was on its side.
That's all for now. I will tinker with it a little more and post if anything major happens to it.